The descent
by ninjadragon5
Summary: well, the story is jake gettin bad news from rose about the huntsclan finding the last aztec skull ina cave in central park. jake goes sreaching for, but soon runs into the huntsclan, jake goes after them, but rose as a nasty fall into the cave.


American dragon: Jake long

The descent Chapter 1: Trouble Arises 

Jake is dreamscpeing with rose again. The scene in his dream is nighttime in a park. The moon is shinning brightly without a cloud in the sky, but the scene seems gloomier the normal and Jake dose not know why. He and rose soon meet on a small bridge over a stream. Rose looked somber.

"Rose, what's up?" Jake said.

" Bad news, I'm afraid. The huntsman as found the location of the last thirteenth Aztec skull. From what I've heard it's in a cave in the middle of central park." Rose said

" What? Really? How?" Jake said.

" I not sure how, but I just know he found it. I told you now so you can get to the cave before the huntsclan do. The huntsclan is going to head out first thing tomorrow to look for it." Rose said.

" Thank you, rose. Thank you very much. I owe you big for this." Jake said

" You have to be sure you can get the skull before the huntsclan does and try not to let the huntsclan see you. 20 or more huntclan members are going to be there. I don't think you can fight them all on your own." Rose said.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I got it all covered." Jake said

" That's good." Rose said.

Rose's mood lighted up. They finished talking about it and went off elsewhere to enjoy the rest of their dream together. When Jake woke up it was morning. It was Saturday so Jake didn't have to go to school.

" Thank god it's Saturday." Jake said.

Jake remembered what rose had told him in his dream. He immediately got up and dressed and ran down stairs. Jake's mom was making breakfast in the kitchen while his dad and Haley were sitting at the table. Jake did not want to stop for breakfast, he had more important things to do now, but his mom caught him running towards the door.

" Jake, Where are you going? Why are you rushing out of the house so often? It's Saturday, at least sit down and eat some breakfast." Said Jake's mom.

" Uh…I really can't now, I got something important to do." Jake said.

" Well, it can't be that important to miss breakfast. Now come sit down." Said Jake's mom.

Jake tried to think of a good excuse to get out of the house, but he couldn't think of one. It could tell the truth to his mom why he was leaving, but he knew how much she worries and plus I couldn't with his dad there since he knew nothing of the magical world. He slowly turned back towards the kitchen and sat down at the table. His sister was beside him and his father was across from him, deeply involved in reading the newspaper in front of him.

" Heehee. Thought you could sneak out to go do your dragon business.

Must be a big important mission to rush out of house like that." Haley said.

"Shut up, Haley. You know we can't talk about this here." Jake said in a whisper.

Jake's dad was too involved in the newspaper to notice what he said. By the time he was done doing things with his family, it was already early afternoon. Jake couldn't believe how much time he had wasted. He huntsclan could be at the cave and gotten the skull already. Jake quickly changed into his dragon form and flew the way to central park.

Jake eventually got to the middle of central park and saw what looked like the entrance to the cave rose told him about. When Jake got to the cave, he saw in shock that the huntsclan was already there. The huntsman, rose as the huntsgirl and about twenty other huntsclan members where there. Jake feared the worst. Jake decided to sneak up close behind them to see if they exactly found the skull. Jake decided it was best to climb to the ceiling of the cave where they most likely would not see him. The huntsclan started to walk deeper into the cave and that meant they have not found the skull yet or else they would have turned back. Jake continued to fellow them in quiet by crawling along the roof of the cave. His claws dug deep enough in the rock to keep him from falling. Jake tried to keep quiet as possible. He did not want to attack them just yet because ever he did not know the exact location of the skull in the cave. Rose just told him it was somewhere in the cave, but not exactly where. The huntsclan continued their way deeper into the cave. The cave got darker and darker until it almost got too dark to see anything, but Jake didn't worry about that, he had nightvison eyes. It got harder for Jake to climb along the ceiling because stalactites kept popping up everywhere and it made it even harder for him to not make a sound. Suddenly, some losse rock fell as Jake tired to crawl between two stalactites. It fell on the cave floor, making it echo a little bit. The last huntsclan member in the rear of the group suddenly stopped in his tracks and Jake froze as well. The huntsclan member stood there for a moment. Jake stayed absolutely still, he was even afraid to breathe. Finally, the huntsclam member walked onward, thinking it was nothing and caught up with the rest of the group. Jake let out a small sigh of relief.

"That was too close for comfort." Jake said and continued on his way as well.

The huntsclan group suddenly stopped. At first, Jake couldn't figure out why, then he saw that the cave had suddenly dropped off to what seemed to be another very narrow, but very deep cave. Jake edged closer to see how deep the cave was and he saw the cave was very deep, so deep that he couldn't see the bottom.

" Alright, everyone. According to the map the skull in at the bottom of this cave." Said the huntsman.

"All the way down there? It would not problem for me, I could fly down there in a flash, but how is the huntsclan going to get down there?" Jake said in a whisper.

Then Jake saw that the huntsclan had climbing equipment strapped to their backs. The huntsclan started taking off the equipment, preparing for the descent. Jake thought it was best to attack now. Some how delay their advance enough so he could get the skull. He immediately flew at them.

Jake swooped low of their heads and yelled "Hey hunts dudes! Catch me if you can!"

He saw rose next to the huntsman. He saw she was happy that Jake had made it and also surprised that Jake had been following behind them this whole time and the huntsclan didn't even notice.

"Fire!" the huntsman yelled.

All of the huntsclan started firing their huntsclan staffs at him, all of their shots missing, of course. Large beams of green light streamed all around him, he swiftly dodged them all. Jake was kind of unsure of what to do next to delay their advance. Suddenly one of beams from a huntsclan staff came to close for comfort. Jake narrowly dodged it and the beam hit some large stalactites on the roof of the cave that made them break and fall. The large stalactites were falling where rose was standing.

Jake looked in horror and yelled, "Look out!"

But it was too late, pieces of the large stalactites fell on her, which made her fall over the edge she was standing close to. The huntsman quickly rushed over to garb her to prevent her from falling, but it was too late. Rose fell out of the huntsman's gasp. Jake immediately flew down after her, completely ignoring the huntsclan. Rose seemed to be falling at a faster pace the normal because Jake could not reach her. He urged himself to go faster, but rose was still was just out of his reach. Suddenly, I rock jutting out of the rock wall that Jake did not see came up on him fast. There was no time for him to dodge it. The rock hit him hard in the face, knocking him unconscious. Now both Jake and rose were rapidly descanting into the dark unknown.

Chapter 2: The great unknown 

Jake began to slowly open his eyes; the first thing he saw was a bright green light. As his eyes began to focus more, he saw the light was coming from a huntsclan staff staked down firm in the cave floor. For a moment, he had no idea where he was. His head throbbed like he had been run over by a train. He looked around; he could not see much besides blackness and rock. He soon realized he was lying down. He slowly turned to his right and saw rose sitting next to him. Suddenly he remembered everything, he wanted to cry in joy that rose had survived the fall, but then suddenly felt as if he did not have the strength to do so. Rose was not looking at him at the moment. She sat with her legs and arms close together, somberly staring out into the black nothingness that seemed to surround them.

"Hey." Jake said.

Rose turned and joy immediately spread across her face and she hugged him gently. "You're alive!" rose said.

She finished hugging him, and then Jake said: "what happened? The last thing I remember was I was trying to catch you from falling."

"Well, while I was falling, I saw you collide with a large piece of rock and started falling haphazardly. Then I hit something cold and hard, I thought I was dead at that moment, but it turned out to be water I had fallen into. I began to rise to the surface, but a second or two later I saw you fall in. I saw you were unconscious and rushed to help you. I garbed you and brought you to the surface. When we both broke the surface, I dragged you through the water and on to a small dry rocky shore to rest you there. I got worried that you did not wake for several minutes; I began to think you had gone into Acoma." Rose said.

"Well, thank you. Kind of ironic that I ended up the one being saved and not you. Are you okay?" Jake said.

"I'm not badly hurt. The rock pieces more or less caught me by surprise and made me fall off the edge, but I least the water broke my fall." Rose said.

Jake started to get up, but suddenly felt a sharp pain surge trough his left side. He sank back down and looked at his left wing; one of the joints of his wing was wrapped in curd bandages rose had made out of her cloths. His left wing had been broken. It must have happened while he fell. He could no longer fly with such a busted up wing.

Rose looked at him somberly and said "sorry."

They were in a real dilemma now. They were in god knows where in part of the cave. Jake knew the huntsclan were still on their way and he was too badly injured to fight them.

"I suggest that we get moving as soon as possible to find a way out of here." Rose said.

"No, I want you to stay here and wait for the huntsclan while I go off alone because if you do go with me, the huntsclan would assume that you had been killed by me." Jake said.

"No, I'm not willing to leave you alone in this dark unknown place in your poor condition and also because if the huntsclan was able to track you down you would not have the strength to fight them on your own. Were going to find a way out together" rose said.

"Well, okay then." Jake said.

Rose started to help Jake get up. Stinging pain came from his left wing, but Jake endured it. Once he stood up, the pain subsided. They saw the narrow cavern they had fallen from, it was wise not to go back that way because it was a very long climb and the huntsclan were coming from that way. So it would be best to find another way out. Rose packed up her supplies and grabbed her huntsclan staff. They started to walk the other way, into the darkness. The soon stepped off from the small dry shore they were on into cold water again. The water was shallow this time, only came up to about below their keens. Rose shined the light of her huntsclan staff all around, like a flashlight to see what was around them. All they could see was rock, rock, and more rock. It almost seemed if they were trapped in here. They soon saw a faint glowing coming from under the water at one far side of the cave.

"Hey rose, do you see something glowing over there?" Jake said.

"Yes, I do. We better find out what it is?" rose said.

They both went over to it to see what it was. When they got to it, Jake leaded down to pick it up out of the water. When Jake lifted it out of the water, he saw what it was.

"Oh my gosh! It's the skull! I can't believe it just happen to pop up here!" Jake said in surprise.

"Yes, now that we have it, we must keep it away from the huntsman. Who knows what he is going to do once he as all the thirteen skulls. It's best we take it with us." Rose said.

"Yeah, your right." Jake said.

Rose put in her pack for safekeeping. Then they saw a tunnel at the far end of the huge cavern that lend elsewhere, they decided to go through it. The weight of the swallow water made their walk kind of slow, but they got there. As soon as they reached the tunnels they were on dry land again and cautiously moved down the tunnel.

Jake and rose continued to move cautiously trough the tunnel, with only the light from rose's huntsclan staff to guild them. They could only see a few feet in front of them; the rest was still submersed in darkness. Both of them got a very ominous feeling and perhaps a little fearful as they moved through the tunnel, for knew knows what that lay ahead. The tunnel seemed to go on forever, where rock only met more rock. Suddenly Jake stepped on something that cracked, he froze in his tracks.

"What's wrong?" rose said.

"I think I stepped on something nasty." Jake said.

Rose shined her huntsclan staff on the tunnel floor. Jake had stepped on a piece of bone lying on the cave tunnel floor. "Uck! I can't believe I stepped on that!" jake said in disgust.

"It looks like a piece of a rib bone. This could mean only two things. Nether something dangerous is alive down here or it just is a poor soul who lost his way down here and couldn't find a way out and died here." Rose said.

"Let's hope not." said Jake as he flicked the piece of bone away with his foot.

The sight of that bone made them even wearier about what lies in this tunnel. They were hoping that nothing alive was in here and that there had to be a way out. They continued trough the tunnel, feeling the wall as they want to make sure they were there. Suddenly Jake and rose couldn't feel the tunnels walls anymore or see them with the huntsclan staff's light. At the moment, they thought they had plunged into darkness itself. Everything was completely black.

Chapter 3: Jounary through blackness 

"I think this the best time to use your night vision eyes now." Rose said.

"Right. Eye of the dragon" said jake.

He saw where they had ended up was an enormously huge cavern that was hundreds of meters high and several meters wide. Large stalacheights hung from the cavern ceiling and stalactites rose from the cavern floor. Jake was surprised to see something so huge was right under New York City and gone unnoticed for so long. Rose could not see a thing. The light from her huntsclan staff was nowhere near brightly enough to see the whole cavern.

"Whoa!" Jake said in surprise.

"What is it?" Rose said.

"Looks like we ended up in really huge cavern of some kind." Jake said.

"Do you see any other tunnels?" rose said.

"No, not really." Jake said.

"I wish I could tell where we were." Rose said.

"That's okay. I can be your eyes for you from now on." Jake said.

Then rose remembered something. "Darn! I'm such a twit! I almost forgot I had night vision goggles in my pack." Rose said.

Once she put it on, she too could see the cavern. He gasped at how big it was.

"Wow! You were right! It is big. we better find another way out and keep moving forward." Rose said.

"Yeah, I'm with you there. I certainly don't want to be stuck here forever." Jake said.

They both decided it was best to move on, find another cave or tunnel that would eventually lend them to an exist. This cavern was had water at the bottom of it too, this time it was a lot deeper, coming up to about their wastes. Both of them did not like the feeling of trudging through the water, for knew knows what lies in it, but they had too in order to make it through the cavern. Soon they came to the other side of the cavern. A very high and straight rock wall lied before them. They couldn't see any exist from the cavern at all. Rose still had some of her climbing equipment with her for a good climb

"I'm going to climb this rock wall and see if there are any tunnels up there or if can spot any of the ground from up there." Rose said.

"No, I'm not letting you go up there. It's too dangerous. I'll do it." Jake said.

"But you're badly hurt and climbing is only going to make your injury worse. I can do it." Rose said.

"Well, okay, but be careful." Jake said.

"Of course." Rose said.

Rose was soon very high up on the cavern wall. The fact she was up so high was worrying Jake. He already called to her three times to know if she found any exist, she found none. Suddenly rose stopped, Jake saw her stop.

Jake called to her, "Rose, what's going on up there?"

" I think I found another tunnel we can go through!" Rose called back to him.

"All the way up there? How in the world am I going to get up there?" jake trought to himself.

Rose started to climb into the tunnel when something moved in the darkness. Rose looked around, but even her night vision goggles couldn't tell what it was. She stayed still for a minute to see if it moved again. Then all of suddenly something lashed out at her with one big curved claw. Rose screamed and fell backward out of the tunnel, the claw narrowly missing her. "Rosé!" Jake yelled in terror as he watched rose fall from rock wall. She fell several feet until her climbing rope and harness caught her. For a few seconds, that was the only thing that kept her from falling. She immediately pulled herself back up and garbed hold of the wall again.

"Rose! What happened?!" said Jake in fear

"I'm not sure! Something just lashed out and attacked me!" said rose.

"Hang on! I'm coming up after you!" Jake said.

"No! Don't bother! I can get down myself!" Rose said.

Rose was still pretty high up; most of the anchor spikes for her rope came lose when she fell. If she continued to climb down, there would not be enough anchors to support her weight and the rock wall was too smooth and slippery to climb down without it. She saw another rock ledge that was close to the wall. It appeared more rocky and easier to climb down from. Rose knew what she had to do. She unhooked her harness from the rope, there was enough lose rope to swing by. Rose started swinging the rope back forth, using her feet to run across the rock wall to gain momentum. Jake wasn't sure of what she was trying to do. Rose kept swinging the rope back and forth until it came close to the other rock ledge. Soon the rope swag close enough to the rock ledge for rose to let go of the rope and jump to the other ledge. Rose made it successfully. Jake looked at her with shock, thinking she was crazy to do something like that, but she was after all trained to do stuff like that.

Rose was a little shaken up by her daring act, but she was okay. As soon as she started climbing down, something huge flew out of the tunnel where rose was. Jake saw clearly with his night vision eyes of what it was. It was a huge bat like creature with massive wings, large pointy ears and a long tail. It was heading straight for rose.

"Rose! Look out! A big bat creature is heading straight towards you!" Jake shouted.

Rose soon saw it too and screamed in terror. That thing was going to tear her apart! Jake had to do something quick! He couldn't fly, but he could still climb. Without much thinking, he climbed up and across the rock wall like a bullet, ignoring the agonizing pain from his left wing. By the time he got to where rose was, the bat creature landed on top of rose, ready to tear her apart. When Jake got close to the other rock ledge, he immediately jumped from on to the ledge on top of the large bat creature. Jake dug his sharp claws deeply into the creature's flesh. The bat creature reared back and howled in pain. The creature let go of rock ledge and of rose. Then both Jake and the bat creature were freefalling through the air and splashed into the icy water below. They hit the water pretty hard. Jake thought the water would drown the bat creature, so he rose quickly to the surface, but the bat creature garbed his tail with its one curved claw and dragged him back down. This creature was just as good in the water as in the air. Jake and the bat creature were now locked in a brutal battle underwater. Rose could only see of what was going on below by bubbles and ripples at the water's surface. Jake was fairing badly in this fight. The creature was too big for him to handle. The creature's claws slashing at him furiously. Rose still watched the battle from the rock ledge. The battle went on for several minutes. Then suddenly the water went still, a second later blood started coming towards the surface. Fear and horror strake through rose

"Jake!!!" rose screamed.

At that moment, she thought Jake had been killed, but a few seconds later Jake broke through the surface. He was all battered and blood-splattered and gasping for air. He may not be dead, but he looks badly hurt, rose thought. Rose rushed to climb down and get over to him. When rose got to him, she saw he had only minor scratches lied on him. The blood that was spattered all over him was not his own.

"Are you alright?" Rose said.

"I think I'm alright." Jake said.

"What happened to the bat creature?" Rose said.

A few minutes later rose found out why he was blood-splattered and what happened to the bat creature. The creature's body partly rose to the surface. It was clearly dead because a shape pointed rock had been stabbed into its head. It was a desperate and brutal move Jake had done, but he had to do it.

Suddenly another bat creature flew out of the tunnel that the first one came out of. Both of them ducked as the bat creature swooped low over their heads, and then it flew up and circled around ready to dive at them again. Both Jake and rose dived under he water and swam to safety. The bat creature above just flew around the cavern, waiting for them to resurface. They couldn't stay down there forever, they had to come up for air and when they did the creature dived at them again. They ducked again, the creature sharp talons narrowly missing them. They soon saw a very narrow tunnel near them in the cavern wall. They must have missed that one. They immediately ran for it as fast as they could through the water. It was not easy, since trying to run through water is extremely difficult. The huge bat creature was almost upon them when the finally reached the tunnel. They quickly got inside the tunnel. The tunnel was too small for the bat creature to fit through. The bat creature flapped his wings and snapped his fangs angrily at the tunnel entrance for a few minutes, then flew away. They were safe for now. Rose let out sigh of relief and gently leaded against Jake's shoulder. For rose, that was about the scariest thing she went through. She had fought with many creatures before, but nothing as big and gruesome as that. Jake comforted her while she leaded her head down on his shoulder.

They soon continued onward through the narrow tunnel they entered. Jake was trying to get the spattered blood off of him with a cloth rose had given him. They were certainly not going to go back to the large cavern where those huge bat creatures were. Both Jake and rose had a sneaking feeling that was no all of them, that more of those creature were hiding somewhere in this endless labyrinth of cavern and tunnels. This tunnel was much harder to past through, it was terribly uneven, large rocks and stalactites jutted out everywhere and there were some spots were it became a tight squeeze. Jake still used his night vision eyes and rose still used her night vision goggles to see by. They figure it was better, considering now dark it was in here. The tunnel went on for a good distance, lending them knew knows where.

The tunnel soon ended, they both saw it lend to another cavern that was higher then it was wide. It was a little smaller then the first cavern they entered and still pitch black. They both could see high up in the cavern, they were several smaller caves lined around it. Jake and rose became puzzled as to what natural force could create such an odd looking cave. Then they both saw large winged forms start darting in and out of the smaller caves high above them. Both of them immediately knew what they were.

"Oh no! Is that what I think it is?!" Jake said loudly

"Yes! More of those bat creatures!" rose said.

"Quick! Let's get back in the tunnel!" Jake said.

It appeared they had entered the creature's main cave, were most all of them had settled. It seems that they had gone from the frying pan into the fire. They quickly rushed back inside the narrow tunnel where they came from, hoping the bat creatures didn't notice them. For a good while, they stood at the mouth of the tunnel, listening to the sounds of the flapping of the their wings and their terrible screeches. They were literally trapped now, they couldn't go forward or backward because the bat creatures would attack them nether way. Jake started looking for another way out around the cave. He soon saw another tunnel on the other side of the cave, directly across from where they were.

"I see another tunnel directly across from us." Jake said to rose.

"If we run for it, we might make it." Rose said.

"Okay. On the count of three." Jake said.

"One." Jake said

"Two" rose said.

"Three!" Jake and rose both said.

They hoped the bat creature wouldn't notice them, but not so lucky. The bat creatures soon heard them and rushed down after them. The creatures were on them faster then they could reach the tunnel. The bat creatures swooped low over their heads, but could not garb them. Jake and rose kept pressing onward; reaching that tunnel was their only hope now. Finally, they reached the tunnel virtually unhurt. A few of the bat creatures flew angrily at the entrance to the tunnel. This tunnel was bigger then the last. So it was possible that the bat creatures could fit through. Jake and rose rushed to get deeper into the tunnel. Soon one of the bat creatures landed and did mange to squeeze itself inside the tunnel. Despite its huge size and awkwardness on land, it was quickly gaining on them. Jake then suddenly stopped. He was tried of running, he wanted to fight to protect rose. So he faced the bat creature head on. He was kind of in advantage now because he fought better on land then he did in the water and they were in a tunnel, no room for the bat creature to fly. Jake and the bat creature soon engaged in a fraise battle. Jake started punching in it the face thinking it would drive him away, but as he continued to do so it only made the creature angrier. Rose shouted at him to stop, but Jake could not hear her over the creature's howls of anger. Soon the bat creature held up one sharp claw, swung it swiftly and lashed Jake across the chest. The attack came so fast; Jake didn't realize what happen at first. He felt terrible sharp pain shoot through his body and toppled to the ground. Jake felt his chest and felt the blood pouring out of the horrible wound that had been inflicted upon him.

"Jake!!" rose yelled and rushed towards him.

"No rose! It will just get you too!" said Jake while coughing

Jake didn't know what to do now; he was too badly hurt to get back up. Then he saw a large stalacheight right above the creature. He mustered whatever remaining strength he had and blew his fire at it. The stalactite broke and fell on the creature, immediately impaling it. The bat creature flared around a little bit, and then went still. When the creature no longer moved, rose rushed over to Jake. Rose helped him as he struggled to get up off the ground. Once he got up, Jake leaned against the tunnel wall. Rose looked at the wound, it was long and deep, blood was thickly pouring out of it. Rose immediately ripped off part of her sleeves and whatever else she could find of cloth to make some bandages to cover the wound. Rose wrapped the ripped cloth tightly around Jake's wound. Jake winched in pain as she did so. Rose knew this would not be nearly good enough to stop the bleeding, but it had to do until they found an exit. Rose hoped now it would be soon.

"You were foolish to try to take on a massive creature like that." Rose said.

"Yeah, but I just could not bare the through of you getting hurt." Jake said weakly.

Rose smiled at him and said, "that's sweet, but you don't have to do that. I can take care of myself."

Jake and rose continued to press onward trough the tunnel. Jake was hanging on to rose for support. Their pace was much slower now because of Jake's bad injury. Soon they had to stop to rest. They sit down on the cold tunnel floor for a few minutes in silence. Rose looked at Jake's wound; the blood was already starting to sip through the bandages. While they sat, rose thought of what Jake had done. He risked his life for hers. Rose knew he was just trying to protect her, but she also knew he did not have to risk his neck off for her. She could handle danger on her own. The truth was she couldn't stand him getting hurt either. Jake soon had enough rest and they got up and moved onward. Rose knew Jake was getting weaker by the minute. His head started to sink low and his breathing became a little heavy. Rose was praying to god now that an exit would appear soon.

Chapter 4: Long Jounary's end 

Soon the tunnel ended to another cavern, it a little smaller then the last two, but still pretty big. Rose saw something odd through her night vision goggles, she couldn't tell clearly what it was, but it looked like a faint light. She took her night vision goggles off and saw it was light, it a very faint light coming from the very top left off the cave which vaguely made out the interior of the cave. Rose looked over to Jake; his head was sunk very slow and had a very drowsy look in his eyes.

"Hey Jake. I see a faint light over there." Rose said to Jake.

Jake perked back at that and said: "that's great! Where there light there must be an exist."

"I see a narrow rocky path that lend to where the light is." Rose said.

" Let's take it. It's our best changes of finding an exit." Jake said.

They cautiously walked up the narrow rocky path; it was so narrow that they had to walk single file. Rose walked in front while Jake was behind, garbing on the rock wall for support. As they went up the path, the faint light got brighter and brighter. The both tied to contain their joy hoping it was an exit. One slip up on this narrow path and you would fall to your doom. Finally, the path ended to another tunnel, but this was very short one. Rose could see that the light was coming from a huge hole at the end of the tunnel that reached to the surface. Rose immediately ran towards the hole. Jake wanted to do the same, but couldn't because he was in so much pain. Soon rose got to the hole and saw it was an exit. Jake soon got to the hole too. They both could see the brilliant clear blue sky above the hole. Both were cheering with joy inside.

It was a bit of a climb to get to the surface, but for what they've been through they were more the ready to make this short climb to freedom. Then Jake became a bit distressed, for as bad as he felt right now he wasn't sure he could make to the top. A few seconds later, a sound came they made them both shutter in fear. It was the sound of huntsman's voice.

"Huntsgirl! Are you down there? Can you hear me?" the huntsman shouted to rose.

Jake soon saw the huntsman and the huntsclan around the edge of the hope and Jake quickly sank back into the shadows were the huntsclan would not see him.

"Yes! I'm down here and I'm okay! I'll be coming up!" rose quickly replied back.

Jake could longer stay in sight or speak a word to rose because if the huntsclan knew he was down here they would surly kill him. Jake soon saw rose climb to the surface and he could not follow. In a split second they were separated again. Jake would have to wait until the huntsclan were gone before he tried to climb to the top. Soon rose got to the surface. The huntsman and half of the huntsclan was there waiting for her.

"How did you know I would come out this way?" rose asked the huntsman.

"We went down the narrow cavern you had fallen into; we could not find you or the skull when we got to the bottom. So I assumed you had survived the fall, found the skull, but then was captured by the American dragon and taken deeper into the cave. So the huntsclan and I went into this tunnel and went on from there and soon run into the bat creatures ourselves. We tried to hold them off, but there were too many of them and the creatures were taking us down like flies. So we backtracked to the entrance to the cave that was in central park. I had a map of the labyrinth of caves and tunnels that went through New York City and I knew there was only two ways in and out. The cave entrance in central park and another exist a few miles away from New York City. So I posted a few huntsclan members at the cave entrance in central park in case you managed to come out that way while the rest of us traveled to this hole." Explained the huntsman.

Rose started to tell a short of fake story of her own.

"Well, what really happened was I did survive the fall, there was no skull to begin with, and I was captured by the American dragon and taken deeper into the cave. The bat creatures soon attacked me as well; they had killed the dragon and I fled for my life until I came here to this hole." Rose told the huntsman

The huntsman believed her story. Soon enough, the huntsclan started to walk away from the hole. Jake listened intensely at the sounds of the huntsclan walking away until he heard them no more. Finally, when it looked safe enough Jake went over to the exit. He looked through the hole to see the distance he had to climb, it wasn't that bad, but in his poor condition he was in now, any climb was a bad one. He looked at the wound on his chest. Blood had completely sipped through the bandages. He had to try to make the climb or he would die down here. He started to climb, but then began to think, if I make out of this hole, then what? What he heard from the huntsman this hole in the ground was a few miles away from New York City, but he knew he be to weak to make the jounary back and there was no way for him to contact his grandfather to rescue him. At that moment, he felt he was doomed. Then he looked over to the right and saw rose's huntsclan pack sitting there in the corner. "Did she just forget it or did she purposely leave it behind?" Jake thought. He went over, picked it up and opened it. He saw that the thirteenth Aztec skull was still inside. Rose has purposely left it there so the huntsman would never get his hands on it. Never since Jake revived his true indenity to her, she had been helping him behind the huntsman's back and Jake thanked her from it. Jake did not know exactly why was doing it; I guessed it was probably because they had grown so close together.

Jake started to climb up out of the hole taking rose's pack with him. Jake wasn't sure what he was going to do next, but at least do something to get out this confoundit cave. The climb was hard on him, but he reached the top. When he reached the top, he could see rose walking away with the huntsclan in the distance. Now that he thought about it, this was probably the longest time he and rose had spend time together. They never got much time to spend together because neither rose's huntsclan business got in the way or Jake's dragon business got in the way and also by the fact rose was afraid if they spend to much time together the huntsman to find out about his true indenity and then he be doomed. Two lives with two completely different destinies, like being on opposite sides of the chessboard. Jake's expression grew somber at that thought.

Jake climbed over the edge and collapsed on the ground, completely exhausted and gasping for air. He lay there for a few minutes trying to catch his breath, then sat up and looked around. He really was only a few miles from the city, but he felt too exhausted to even stand. For a few minutes he just sat there looking at the brilliant cityscape before him. It was turning to evening when he finally got out of the hole.

He became to look through rose's pack for something to contact his grandfather some how. He defiantly could not stay out here for long, he needed help or he would die. Soon he found rose's cell phone, she must a purposely left it there as well. Jake wanted to thank her a million times over if she would here with him now. He knew grandpa's number, so called him straight away. Lucky enough I answer the first time. Jake immediately told his grandpa what happened and said he would rescue him as soon as he could. It was well into the evening before his grandpa found where he was. By then, his lose of blood started to take its toll on him. He was lying down, his vision was blurry, his head felt dizzy and he was not very aware of what was going on around him. He saw his grandpa come to him in his dragon form. When his grandpa got to him he saw Jake was in poor condition and getting worse fast. His grandpa immediately lifted Jake on to his back. He soon saw the pack that was beside him and what was inside it and took that to. Then Jake's grandpa flew back to the city.

Jake was soon safe in his grandpa's shop. Jake had gone back to his human form and hed passed out by the time they got there. His grandpa rested him on the couch and properly bandaged his wound. Jake soon woke back up a few minutes later. His grandpa was sitting beside him in a chair with fu dog sitting beside him.

"Phew. For a minute, you were starting to give us a scare there, kid." Said fu dog.

" Now that you're awake, maybe you can tell what in the world happened today?" Jake's grandpa said.

"Yeah, I really like to know how you ended up in such a mess." Fu dog said.

Jake sat up and started to tell the story

"Well, it's kind of a long one. I was dreaming with rose again and she told the location of the last thirteen Aztec skull which was in a cave in the middle of central park. So the next day I went there and the huntsclan was already there! So I sneaked up behind them waiting to attack them at the right moment. When I did, there was accident and rose had a nasty fall, I tried to save her, but I ended up getting hurt as well, lucky enough nether rose or I got badly hurt in the fall. Rose and me found ourselves in a big cave and that's where we found the skull. We decided to find a way out together, but soon these huge bat creatures attacked us. We barely escaped with our lives, that's how I got this nasty scratch on me. Finally we found a way out, but the huntsclan was there. Rose went up first while I stayed behind. Rose must have told a fake story to go by because they soon left afterwards. When they were gone, I climbed out myself and that when I called you." Jake explained.

"Well. That's quite an amazing story, but you really should have called me first before rushing off on your own." Said his grandpa.

"I know, but there was no time too. If I were any slower the huntclan would have gotten the skull before me." Jake said.

"Well, I am impressed by the fact you went through such an ordeal without being killed and I am also glad by the fact you found the skull." Said his grandpa.

"Where is it now?" Jake said.

"It's in my safe. Where it shall remain for a long time." Said his grandpa.

"That's good. Hey, do you know of any cavern system that goes under and out of New York City and I especially want to know if you know about those bat creatures we ran into." Jake said.

"Well, yes, as a matter of fact I do know. The cave system you went through is a labyrinth of tunnels and caves the goes for miles through and out New York City. Humans have found the cave entrance you went through, but never bothered to see where it lends." Said his grandpa.

"And the bat creatures?" Jake said.

"As from them, well, consider yourself very lucky to survive an encounter with them. They are know as the lethrblaka, meaning huge bat, they are probably the most fearsome and dangerous creature in the entire magical world. They were thought to be existent, but it appears you have found I hidden surviving colony." Said his grandpa.

"Are they a threat to the magical world?" Jake said.

"No, not now anymore. There are too few of them and they rarely come above ground." Said his grandpa.

"That's a relief." Jake said.

Jake thoughts come to Rose again.

"Grandpa, do you think me and rose will ever be to happy together?" said Jake.

"I don't know. Even I'm not sure what the future holds for you and rose, for better or worse. I only hope things turn out for the better." said his grandpa.

"Yeah, I hope so too," Jake said.

"Well, lie down and get some rest. I let your mom know you are here. Tomorrow will be a better day." His grandpa said.

Jake soon lay back down again to get some rest. His thoughts dwelled on the day that might come when he and rose would be together forever without any concerns at all.

THE END


End file.
